US Fed thinking of selling debt to withdraw stimulus

Several Federal Reserve policy makers want to begin selling securities relatively soon to cut back the US central bank’s massive help to the financial system, the Fed said on Wednesday.

Minutes of the Fed’s policy meeting in January suggested officials remain positive about the economy’s prospects even as they worry about the impact of an elevated unemployment rate likely to hold around 9.7 per cent through 2010.

To combat the worst recession and financial crisis since the 1930s, the Fed has cut benchmark interest rates to near zero and bought more than $1.5 trillion in government and mortgage bonds to pump money into the economy.